Mentors
Ted Hoffman, Managing Director Alliance Ventures
For nearly two decades Ted has been the Managing Director of Alliance Ventures, which has
advised and facilitated the formation of strategic alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures
for corporate growth of hundreds of start-up to global companies. He has also been an angel investor
in a dozen start-up technology companies, and assisted them with counsel on a broad variety of business
issues. Ted's career began with a highly successful start-up and IPO, followed by management positions
in a global company where he oversaw billions in assets and managed thousands of employees, in domestic
and international business operations.
Gamiel Gran, Partner Sierra Ventures
Gamiel Gran has more than 20 years of operational roles, leading Business and Corporate Development,
Strategic Alliances, Indirect Channels and Directs sales for corporations such as IBM,
Oracle, BEA, Asera.
Currently, he is Partner at Sierra Ventures, a VC firm, focused on investments in Consumer and Enterprise
Information Technology. Gamiel has extensive expertise in business development, sales and marketing,
channels strategy, go-to-market strategy with interest in Big Data/Analytics, Social apps,
Mobile and Cloud spaces.
Bogomil Balkansky, Senior Vice President,Cloud Infrastructure Products,VMware
Bogomil Balkansky joined VMware in 2005 and leads the company’s virtualization and cloud infrastructure
product management and marketing organizations. Prior to VMware, Balkansky was group manager in the
Customer Data Integration business unit at Siebel Systems, a product manager at an application integration
start up, and a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Balkansky holds a bachelor of arts in mathematics
from Cornell University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Patricia Roller, Angel investor TAF
Patricia Roller is a member of The Angels' Forum and one of the owners and Co-CEOs of frogdesign inc., a strategic,
consulting firm, operating in the US, Asia and Europe. While at frog, Patricia had a key role in managing major
accounts such as HP and Motorola. Patricia was honored by YWCA's Tribute to Women in Silicon Valley in 2003.
Patricia is a member of the Board of Blink Twice, a NY based company that she has guided through product launch
and Podaddies, a visual ad network for online video publishers.
Victor Shaburov, Serial entrepreneur
Victor Shaburov is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of two successful technology
companies. His most recent company, Handster, Inc., became a leading mobile application store
platform and was acquired by Opera Software in 2011. Prior to the founding of Handster, Shaburov
was co-founder of SPB Software, one of the world's most successful smartphone application developers.
Shaburov also worked on the renowned Netweaver and MobileClient CRM projects at SAP AG in Germany for
seven years. Victor graduated from St. Petersburg State University in Russia with a master's degree in
computer science and math.
Alex Benzer, CEO Social Engine
Alex Benzer is an entrepreneur, designer, and angel investor. He co-founded and bootstrapped
his first company while in college, and sold it in 2007. Alex then grew his second company, SocialEngine,
to thousands of customers and profitability. Having recently graduated from the TechStars Boulder accelerator
program, Alex and his LA and Boulder-based teams are now building a full suite of social products. Alex loves
meeting and working with other entrepreneurs. He is personally invested in growing the early-stage web tech
community in Los Angeles, and recently opened a collaborative space for early-stage founders called Silverlake HQ.
Fernando Gouveia, International operations manager Plug&Play
Fernando is a native of São Paulo, Brazil and works with tech startups and international organizations,
both public and private, to connect their technology and entrepreneurship ecosystems to Silicon Valley.
Fernando has helped structure Plug and Play's Acceleration program and serves as a direct point of contact
for the selected entrepreneurs. Since joining Plug and Play, he has participated as a judge to review and
select companies in more than 15 countries and has worked closely with over 120 international startups.
Maria Karaivanova, Strategic partnerships CloudFlare Inc.
Maria Karaivanova is currently at CloudFlare Inc., a San Francisco based startup, offering performance
and security services for websites. She is also a Member of the Selection Committee at Harvard Business Angels.
Maria specializes in Consumer Internet and Digital Media, SaaS and
Cloud Security, Emerging Markets Entry Strategies, Intellectual Property Management and Business Development.
She has worked as Business Development and Licensing Manager for Boing Company, Corporate Development Associate
at Expedia, London and occupied various positions at Intel, including Sales Engagement Manager, leading Intel/
McAfee sales, distribution and channel engagements.
Deyan Vitanov, Serial entrepreneur
Deyan Vitanov is a two-time entrepreneur, who was most recently the CEO and co-founder of Philanthropedia,
a leading provider of nonprofit reviews and impact analysis. In March 2011, Philanthropedia was acquired by
GuideStar, the largest information source on nonprofits and foundations in the US. Prior to Philanthropedia,
Deyan cofounded CPP-Home.com, a learning hub for beginner C++ programmers, which was also acquired.
Deyan holds an MBA from the Stanford GSB, an BA in Integrated Social Sciences from Jacobs University Bremen,
and has been coding in various programming languages since he was 9. In his spare time, he loves helping aspiring
entrepreneurs and watching competitive gaming. You can visit his personal website at www.deyanvitanov.com.
Andy Bartley, CEO Algorithms.io
Andy joins the VoiVoda mentor's team after working for two years in early stage investing with The Angels' Forum and The Halo Fund.
Andy has reviewed over 4,000 business plans in IT, Mobile, SaaS, Life Sciences, Clean Tech, and Consumer Products.
He enjoys working with and mentoring early stage entrepreneurs, and is a two-time entrepreneur himself.
Andy has an MBA from Santa Clara University and a B.S. in Biological Engineering from Oregon State University.
Alma Rodoni
With her own consulting practice, Alma provides strategy, executive level management,
business development, licensing and product marketing expertise to large and small companies
in the digital media, mobile and application ecosystem markets. With a successful career focused
on consumer software, Alma participated as an early stage executive, executive manager,
and co-founder with Banner Blue, Broderbund and Pocket Express respectively. Most recently Alma ran several
businesses as an interim executive at Handmark and as a strategic consultant to the Barnes & Noble
NOOK application team.
Shayna Modaressi, XG Ventures
Shayna has investment banking background and for the last two years is actively engaged with startups.
She is part of XG Ventures, an investor group of ex-Googlers, focused primarily on the consumer internet,
including the mobile, video, gaming, social media, and online media sectors. Shayna has B.A. and B.S. in
Molecular Cell Biology and Mass Communications from University of California, Berkley.
Ivan Ivankovich, Founder iFinance LLC
Ivan brings more than 24 years of finance and operations management experience. His primary focus
is working as CFO for early to mid stage venture backed (or private equity backed) technology companies
in support of their accounting, financial management and financial reporting requirements. His industry
experience includes technology, internet services, online advertising, digital media publishing and
telecommunications. He has particular expertise in accounting, financial reporting, budgeting and
forecasting, financial modeling, cash management, financial and operational processes. Ivan also
has business transaction experience both on the buy and sell side participating in the diligence,
negotiation and transition/integration of companies.
In addition to his role as the senior finance executive for various early and later stage companies,
Ivan served as CFO of YellowPages.com, Vice President, Portfolio Operations with Platinum Equity, a
global acquisition firm specializing in the operation of technology companies. Ivan's primary responsibility
was the management and operational supervision of its portfolio companies. He led the transition of acquired
companies into stand-alone entities and served as interim CFO implementing critical financial and operational
infrastructures and processes. Ivan started his career with Ernst & Young joining their audit practice in Los
Angeles. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the California Society of CPA's.
Lyle Pearson, President Save USA, Inc.
Lyle has developed and managed both software and hardware projects that included sales and marketing
of organizations that have over $1 billion in annual revenue. He has a strong background in IT, including
energy products and services, management, sales, operations, business development and marketing. Lyle has
worked on various projects with companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Entersys, Unisys, Burroughs,
Novell, Attorney Software Inc. and BusinessLand. Currently he is the President of SAVE USA inc.
Roger Royse, Owner of Royse Law Firm
ROGER ROYSE is the founder of Royse Law Firm, PC, a business and tax law firm with offices in Northern
and Southern California(www.rroyselaw.com). Roger practices in the areas of corporate and tax law and his
clients include emerging and middle-market companies and high net worth individuals in a variety of industries.
Roger is an advisor to numerous Silicon Valley companies, and has also served as an adjunct professor at the
Golden Gate University Masters of Tax program. He is a frequent speaker, writer, radio guest, panelist and
blogger for bar associations, CPA organizations, and business groups. Roger is a Northern California Super
Lawyer and is AV Peer-Rated by Martindale Hubbell. Roger was also recently chosen as the San Francisco bay
area Leukemia & Lymphoma Society 2012 “Man of the Year” in recognition of his fundraising efforts.
Paul Twombly, Angel investor TAF,Band of Angels, Keiretsu Forum
Paul has over 30 years of diversified global experience in executive management,
M&A, business development, partner development, product management, customer service,
manufacturing and operations. He is a General Partner at XF Ventures, active angel
investor and member of The Angels Forum, Keiretsu Forum and Band of Angels.
Assen Kanev, GM Fuze Box
Assen has 15+ years of managment experience in various technology startups that grew to successful
leaders on the market. In 2007 he was closley involved in two consecutive M&A of WebMessenger, a startup founded
by Val Babajov and became a GM of the acquired company. Curently, Asen is the GM of R&D subsidiary of Fuze Box, a revolutionary,
hi-tech brand that leads the way in developing cloud-based business applications that allow people to connect,
collaborate and communicate better together. Assen brings unparallel experience in the marketing, strategy and
business development fields.
George Emilov, CTO Partners 1993 Inc.
George brings 22 years of professional experience as CTO in various companies. George has worked closely
together with Val for over 15 years. He was CTO at WebMessenger where he oversaw 120 developers spread over
5 countries and managed all of the key projects. After the WebMessenger exit in 2008, George went to CallWave
(now FuzeBox) to continue his managerial duties. He is in charge of overseeing development projects and selecting
new talent for VoiVoda.